vice president biden was in the senate at the time of the desert one operation. it was clearly on people's minds. also in the room was one of the aspects that came out of desert one and that was the formation of a unified special operations forces command. the troops, the forces that would carry out the operation, that had become such a unique asset of the united states. >> the president made one decision, informed, it seems to me by the history. he asked for two backup helicopters. >> the president asked for enough assets to ensure that the united states, on its own, could get in and could get out of the abbottabad compound. >> now take us to the moment or was it a series of meetings where we now know vice president biden voiced reservations about an actual raid as opposed to a missile strike. secretary gates did. some key military leaders did. what was it like? was it a situation where the majority of the president's advisers were urging him not to do this? >> to get to this point there were two dozen interagency meetings leading to this point. on the thursday